I would agree with all that. The bottom line, deer die and then they are eaten. They may be eaten by opossums, crows, and microbes or they make be eaten by me. I think they're tasty too.
At least here in Pennsylvania white tailed deer are a byproduct of human agriculture and development. We paved the valley floors with food crops and left ample forested hills and woodlands everywhere in between. We created the perfect habitat for deer and their population exploded. In many areas they actually walk up and browse on ornamental shrubs and vegetable gardens outside our houses.
We don't call it a deer harvest as a euphemism, our deer population really is the direct result of agriculture. Mac
Mac,
you've hit a nail on the head here, and even more so in the UK where there are so few areas of land that are truly wild... In that I mean land that has had no human intervention since the last ice age.
We've taken out all our top predators bar ourselves ( and we seem to be working on that ) and adulterated the landscape to such an extent that everything is out of balance. ( Heck after years of experience showing us that it's a bad idea we're considering introducing a pest to control Japanese knotweed - these things have never gone well.)
Deer in the UK have reached epidemic proportions, they cannot sustain themselves in a healthy manner in the space allowed. Most of our deer control is aimed at taking out trophy animals with a little number control added in. The deer are suffering through ill health and stress and yet the "tree huggers" are saying they should be left alone. Well I feel that's cruel, we've created a bad situation and through a misguided "moral" feeling of watching Bambie cartoons are going to make them suffer more.
We should be encouraging hunting, but not for trophy heads, make the sport cheaper for those prepared to take out does and weaker males, and encourage the eating of this very healthy meat and we may be truly "harvesting" them.
Goatboy.
